Chapter 681-One Man Show
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
Ouyang Shuo did not support Black Snake's deductions.
Di Chen did not attack Stone City because he feared the Shanhai Alliance, not the city protection legion. He had seen through the determination of Shanhai Alliance to protect Stone City, which was why he did not dare to act.
The current Handan City was similar to the Shanhai City from before; they had swallowed up too much and needed to digest it. Jingdou's territory scale would be among the top three provinces.
If Handan City started another conflict, rushing into a fight with Stone City, and Shanhai Alliance got involved the flames of war would spread, and it would not be good news to them.
The current Di Chen had learned how to measure pros and cons.
"The other members of Yanhuang Alliance have taken similar actions?" Ouyang Shuo asked.
Black Snake nodded, "That's right. In half a year, Chun Shenjun had spent a lot of gold and hired 100 thousand player mercenaries to sweep the Jingchu Province. The current Jingchu province, apart from Xiangyang Prefecture where the imperial city is located, the rest is the territory of Pill Sun City."
"The current Chun Shenjun has a massive appetite and is ready to enter the Zhongyuan Province."
When Ouyang Shuo heard this report, he shook his head.
Chun Shenjun had tasted the sweetness of using a mercenary army, even to an irrecoverable state; he was walking further and further onto that path.
On the surface, a mercenary army was far cheaper than maintaining a proper territory army. However, in truth, they could only support but not take over. If not, it would be truly detrimental to training a local army.
In the last life, Pill Sun City's army was extremely weak in country wars.
Who knew that in this life, it would be exactly the same.
One had to say, Chun Shenjun was too much of a merchant and liked to balance finances. In the grand scheme of things, there were no improvements, truly disappointing.
It was the case of, 'The person involved in the situation is too caught up in the whole matter, while people looking on can see the whole situation clearly.'
The deeply involved Chun Shenjun would not think about this point; instead, he would feel pleased by his own actions.
"Donghai Province's Blood Red City as well as King City in Jiangnan Province have had similarly taken over their provinces. The difference is that Donghai Province still has an imperial city in Jianye Prefecture while King City did not only take over the entire province, but it has also started to work on Yizhou Prefecfure." Black Snake reported.
"What's the scale of King City's navy, and how's their strength?"
Black Snake froze; luckily, he had prepared beforehand, "Our intel shows that they have already built up a Zhoushan Squadron. Not only that, he also plans to build the Penghu Squadron in Yizhou Island. Weirdly, their squadron numbers are exactly the same as ours. I suspect that our info has been leaked."
"That fellow really has his ways." Xiong Ba's methods were something Ouyang Shuo had witnessed, "Did you investigate how it was leaked?"
"Pretty much." The Black Snake Guards was truly efficient, "It should be the officers from King City in charge of buying warships; they must have tricked the manager of our shipyard. We have captured him; he still thinks that it was not a big issue, and he could just randomly reveal it."
Ouyang Shuo grew more serious and said, "It seems like all you intel organizations aside from intel collecting also needs to train the officials to strengthen their anti-investigative abilities."
"Yes, my Lord. I'll work with Shen Buhai on this."
"En." Ouyang Shuo nodded, asking, "What about Guanxi Province?"
On the topic of Guanxi Province, Black Snake laughed, "The Guanxi Province is so boisterous now. The mid region is taken over by Xiangyang Prefecture and Chang An Prefecture, the north and south by Asura City and Fallen Leaf City respectively. If the imperial city did not stand in the way, Asura City and Fallen Leaf City would have fought already."
"They have not thought about expanding outside?" Ouyang Shuo asked.
"There are such signs." Black Snake nodded, "Fallen Leaf City is trying to enter the Zhongyuan Province from the east. Helplessly, the strategy of Pill Sun and Fallen Leaf City conflicted. Along with Hanwu Emperor making things clear, all of a sudden, the Zhongyuan Province became a mess."
"As for Asura City in the north, the other regions are all high plains with bad geography. The soil is not fertile and has limited potential, which is why Sha Pojun wanted to expand. Helplessly, it's north, west, and south are all NPC powers, so there's nothing he can do. The east is covered by Fengxiang City, so the current Asura City is like a trapped bird, unable to break away."
Ouyang Shuo frowned, thinking about the Mongol Empire once more, "When a dog is eager, it can even jump over a wall. Pay more attention to them, especially whether they have come into contact with the Mongol tribe."
"Understood!" Black Snake nodded his head once more, "Looking at the Yanhuang Alliance, the one without ambition would be Swordsman City. Till date, they have only taken down one prefecture. After which, they have shown no desire to expand. Although the Shu Land is mountainous, this is too weird."
"On the side of Swordsman City, let the Shadow Guards of the Shanhai Guards pay attention to them!"
In the Gaia 3rd year, the underworld was not out yet, so it was not time for Swordsman City to take the center stage.
"Yes, my Lord!"
Black Snake also knew that Cui Tianqi, who led the Shadow Guards, was trusted by the Lord. In this half a year, the Shadow Guards had captured many of the corrupted officials n Shanhai City.
After such an introduction by Black Snake, the situation in the China region became crystal clear.
In this half a year, the giants rose and the weak had been defeated, this had become the melody of the wilderness.
Out of the 17 provinces in China, five had been taken down by the Yanhuang Alliance. On the contrary, only Taiyuan Province in the north and Chuanbei Province in the south were truly taken by the Shanhai Alliance.
As for Yunnan Province and Lingnan Province, only a third were taken.
Be it Consonance City, Black Lion City, or Xunlong City, none of them had obtained the power over their provinces. Stone City was being beaten into a corner by Handan City, and it only wished for survival.
Amongst which, there was still the problem with Xunlong City.
In comparison, Shanhai Alliance was at a total disadvantage.
"The situation is not good!" Ouyang Shuo sighed.
In the current situation, members of the Yanhuang Alliance were spreading out in a flower and becoming true Lords of a region. Meanwhile, Shanhai Alliance only had Shanhai City as a lone flower while the other allies dimmed.
Such a situation occurred because his allies lacked the ability and also because of Ouyang Shuo forcing their hand. In the first three years of the last life, when did Di Chen and the others have such skill?
In this life, Shanhai City forced them to take out all their trump cards, which caused them to obtain such battle results.
With that, the achievements of Bai Hua and the others seemed lackluster.
If Ouyang Shuo did not recall incorrectly, Bai Hua had completed the takeover of the Yunnan Province in the 5th year. Her current achievements could not be called bad.
One could only say that the times have changed.
In this half a year, the seclusion of Shanhai City had truly caused a lot of trouble.
Rumours had spread around China. Some said that Ouyang Shuo was scolded by the federation higher ups, and they had asked him to slow down; some said that Shanhai City knew that they could not beat the Yanhuang Alliance, so they were surrendering.
Although it sounded funny, it also showed what the players thought of Shanhai Alliance. If it was not for the huge news caused by the voyage squadron, the rumors might have gotten even worse.
Naturally, Ouyang Shuo did not bother about these rumors. However, this huge flag of the Shanhai Alliance was one that Ouyang Shuo needed to wave. After all, this was the key to him leading the future country wars.
"Since you all have shown your cards, it's time for a battle!" At this date, there was nothing for Ouyang Shuo to fear; on the other hand, his morale was high.
After half a year of seclusion, the tiger that was Shanhai City was going to come down the mountain!
Ouyang Shuo rubbed his head, temporarily tossing out his thoughts, "You can leave now!"
"Yes, my Lord!"
Black Snake bowed, leaving the reading room. At the door, he bumped into Zhang Yi.
The two of them exchanged glances, their hearts resonating with one another.
It seems like this 'reporting meeting' was going to last for an exceedingly long time.
"Greetings, Lord!" Zhang Yi entered the reading room and bowed.
"Sit!" Ouyang Shuo was causal; his mood was unaffected by the matter just now. He directly entered the topic, "Speak, what kind of progress has the Honglu Temple had in this past half a year?"
"Yes, my Lord!"
Zhang Yi was prepared and started to report.
In this half a year, although it seemed like the Honglu Temple had done nothing, they had actually worked a lot behind the scenes. The results they got was a huge energizer to Ouyang Shuo.
As expected from Zhang Yi, he truly did not disappoint Ouyang Shuo.
Based on what Zhang Yi's report, Yunnan, Chuanbei, Wannan, and Lingnan, these four city-states, were all broken through by the Honglu Temple, and they had inserted some of Shanhai City's chess pieces into these parties.
Amongst which, the Black Snake Guards and Shanhai Guards had worked together.
Last night, the Yunnan City-state had called for an emergency four city state meeting. This morning, the news had already spread to the Honglu Temple.
Apart from placing chess pieces, their greatest achievement came from the Chuanbei City-State. In that city-state, a fourth of the Lords had started to turn to their side.
Amongst which, a few of them were the Lords who held massive sway in the city-state.
This also meant that Shanhai City also had the ability to lead the strategic direction of the Chuanbei City-State at the appropriate moment.
On this point, he had to give it to Zhang Yi's guile.
The rise of the Four Seas Bank had helped the Honglu Temple to a certain extent. Using the chips of future loans, Zhang Yi managed to persuade some of the Lords.
It was the same as saying that the moment that Shanhai City could remove one corner of the four city-states without moving any troops.